Don't revive the 1980 Olympic analogies anytime soon folks. The simple fact is that there is a huge void in the American hockey system which these guys will be filling in the next 5-10 years. In the meantime, players wearing the red, white and blue won't be the contenders for 2010 or the next World Cup of Hockey, whenever that is going to take place.
The decline and looming retirements of players like Mike Modano, Jeremy Roenick, Keith Tkachuk, Bill Guerin and Brian Leetch (already retired) is going to leave gaping holes in American experience and locker-room cred for the next Olympics. Ironically, Chelios looks fit enough to play in 2010, and USA Hockey should immediately put Chelly in the Front Office when he retires.
Right now, the best and brightest American players still on the sunrise side of their careers are players like Erik Cole, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury. Not exactly a murderers row when you consider Heatley, Spezza, Iginla, Lecavalier, St. Louis and Richards will be tearing it up for Canada through much of the next decade. Americans used to have the best defensemen in the NHL. When was the last time an American was even on the short list for the Norris Trophy?
It's a great achievement for USA Hockey and the USNTDP to have so many Americans taken in the draft. As a US Hockey fan since 1980, the American program needs the infusion of NHL-ready talent that the National Team is producing and the NCAA Hockey and the USJHL are feeding to them.
Though I am a life-long Southerner, ice hockey is my game. I was likely the first hockey-specif ic sportswriter in the state of Louisiana when the ECHL arrived in 1995. I was a freelance hockey sportswriter for local fishwraps between 1995-2000.
Being from New Orleans, I follow the Saints, Hornets and LSU in that order. I have been from Los Angeles to New York City to watch Wayne Gretzky play, and I attended my first hockey game at Maple Leaf Gardens in 1985. The greatest hockey ever played was the 1987 Canada Cup Final between Canada and the USSR.
